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All Of The Strangest Omissions From WWE 2K19's Roster

WWE 2K19 will be released in early October and for the past month or so, 2K has been gradually releasing details of which Superstars, past and present, will be featured on the game along with their ratings. As always, there's a lot to be excited about. Roddy Piper will be a playable character for the first time in three years, The Bruiserweight Pete Dunne will be making his WWE video game debut, and a whole host of other NXT Superstars from Bianca Bel Air to the War Raiders will be joining him.

Earlier this week, WWE 2K effectively made it's final roster announcement about the upcoming game when it revealed who will be available via the downloadable content that will be released late 2018/early 2019. An extra eleven Superstars have been added via the DLC, most of which are currently plying their trade in NXT. Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, and Ricochet just to name a few. Main roster stars Bobby Lashley and Mike Kanellis will also need to be downloaded and paid for if you want to add them to your rosters.

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We're assuming that means everyone who will be on WWE 2K19 has now been announced, and there are a few glaring omissions. The name at the top of that list, Tomasso Ciampa. Ciampa is the current NXT Champion, he isn't a new signing, and was included on last year's game, WWE 2K18. After not making the cut, Ciampa tweeted that he didn't want players using him on the game, but that tweet has since disappeared. Ciampa's NXT co-star Nikki Cross is also absent from the game which is almost as baffling. Cross has been a WWE Superstar for two and a half years and again, she was featured on last year's game.

WWE games aren't all about current Superstars, of course, and one of the most appealing aspects of the games is the inclusion of past wrestlers so fans can set up their very own dream matches. Well, there will be a few dream matches that you won't be able to have this time around. That's because WWE Hall Of Famers Mark Henry and Mick Foley have not been included on this year's game. The most shocking aspect of the former being omitted is not only that he has actually wrestled for WWE in 2018, but it will be the first time he hasn't made the cut since 2006. When it comes to Foley, we don't just mean the man himself, but none of his three faces are playable characters either. Extra strange considering he was a special guest referee for WWE just last week at Hell In A Cell.

via wwe.com

On to 205 Live and despite what you might think about the brand, there are more cruiserweights on this WWE game than ever before. Fourteen 205 Live Superstars have made the cut on WWE 2K19, and that includes one of the brand's newest acquisitions, Lio Rush. Tony Nese and Lince Dorado will also be making their WWE video game debuts. However, for some strange reason, two cruiserweights have been removed from the roster, veteran Brian Kendrick and Aussie, Buddy Murphy. No 2K appearances for them this year despite the latter being prominently featured on 205 Live.

Six glaring omissions from the roster and we are still not done. Last year, Rob Van Dam and Batista were special edition DLC characters. You would think considering WWE doesn't seem to want to even talk to Batista right now that he would be cut from the game. Not the case. The Animal will feature once again but this time you won't need to download him. RVD, on the other hand, is nowhere to be seen. The ECW legend will be joined on the bench by JBL. Okay, maybe fans aren't as upset about the lack of JBL on WWE 2K19 as the rest of the names in this article, but again, it seems strange to leave him out when he has been on so many games in the past and is still connected to the company.

What does this all mean for the future of the current stars who haven't been included? Well, probably nothing. We don't imagine Ciampa and Murphy are about to be released by WWE and the company has shown its hand by excluding them from WWE 2K19. Perhaps the stars didn't want to be in the game, although we have no idea why that would be. It may be strange but we can't imagine the sales of the game will be affected all that much. There will still be 211 Superstars on WWE 2K19, it's just a mystery as to why some of the above won't be a part of that group this year.